For Later Reference
by awesomesen
Summary: Wherein Sorata plans for the future, and Arashi doesn't learn from the experience. [one shot]


_this is a story that i've been working on for several months now... well, i wrote half of it in june, and the other half the other day. that counts as "working on for several months," doesn't it...?_

_ETA: 11/7 - in posting, some of the formatting was messed up. fixing it now. also i idiotically misspelled "hiragana," which i am also fixing. oy.  
_

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Arashi had to admit that the sight of Sorata working diligently at the kitchen table was an unusual one. Several pieces of paper surrounded him, both blank and crumpled, and he was writing furiously on another, pausing, then writing a few more words before considering again. 

After watching this for several minutes, Arashi had to speak. "It's rare to see Sorata-san studying." He had been so engrossed in his activity that he hadn't noticed Arashi's approach; Sorata's first reaction was to start and cover his work with his arms.

"'Neechan!" For a moment he looked almost embarrassed, but he recovered quickly. "There you are!" Sorata withdrew his hands from the paper, grinning over at her. "I was thinking you'd show up eventually, and it's not really homework, although it _is _studying." He held up the lined paper, trying to hand it to Arashi. "You should probably see it, too!"

"What is it?" she asked, taking the paper from him. It was half covered in Sorata's oddly neat handwriting with a list of words in a mixture of katakana, hiragana and kanji: _Houko, Hiroko, Amaya, Mie, Mai, Michiru, Ai, Aoi, Kiriko, Mayumi_— "These are all names," Arashi said, after scanning the first few. "Girl's names."

"That's right!" Sorata said cheerfully. "Well, even I understand that having twenty-six children is unreasonable, so I think we need to narrow it down. I also like the name 'Sakura' for a girl, but ever since meeting Subaru-san it's somehow lost it's appeal. But what about Houko?"

"I—_why_?" Arashi said, with the feeling that she already knew.

"I sort of like names with _Mi_, too, but I think that 'Amaya' is also a winner, since you write it with 'rain,'" Sorata continued. When he had caught Arashi's question, he blinked. "Well, I don't know. Isn't it important for you to be involved in the naming process, too?"

"The naming process of what," Arashi said, feeling a migraine growing behind her eyes.

"Our first child."

The paper Arashi was holding became a crumpled projectile weapon without her even thinking about it, hitting Sorata on the forehead despite his best ducking efforts. He grinned at her in that annoying way of his, her stomach twisting. But now was definitely not the time to get distracted by—stupidity.

"Neechan, you really should join a baseball club," Sorata said, unfazed. "Anyway, unless we get lucky and have twins—or triplets!—I guess that more then three children would be pretty unreasonable. But there's just a lot of cute names for girls," he said, picking the crumpled list up off the floor and smoothing it out, "so I can't decide."

"I—I'm not having any children!" Arashi snapped, furious. "And certainly not with_ you_." It was stupid and—juvenile, but the thought of it, of having a child with him, of _sleeping _with him—of sex, of letting him... of _wanting_ to—she hoped he would think her blush was only out of anger.

Sorata only picked up on the first part of her exclamation. "What's wrong with daughters?" His tone was surprisingly serious, as if he hadn't just been making fun of her.

"I—" Arashi clenched her fists. "Children are fine. For other people." She looked away. "It's none of your business, and I can't—_believe_ that you would do something this stupid."

"Yes you can." Sorata grinned. "Believe it, I mean." He looked down at his wrinkled list again. "I dunno. I just think I'd like a big family, you know? And a house. Cause I never really had one, I guess. And I only want girls, because boys aren't cute," Sorata added stubbornly. "So why don't you want kids?"

"Because! It's none of your business—and," Arashi said, frowning but relieved to be able to divert the subject, "_now_ certainly isn't the time to plan such things. Even _if _I—" Arashi couldn't figure out how to phrase things to make it clear she was speaking only hypothetically and humoring him.

"It's true we aren't exactly a lovey-dovey couple yet," Sorata said agreeably, with a good deal of emphasis on the last word.

"—And we won't be!" she snapped, whirling around to glare at the wall. The—wall was very objectionable. Very—gritting her teeth, Arashi stomped into the kitchen under the pretense of getting a drink, angry with herself as much as with him. He was always like this, always making stupid assumptions, so why should this time—why did she keep getting upset?

Sorata followed her into the kitchen, leaving his list of names behind. "_Nee-chan,"_he said in a sing-song voice. "You've gotten angry."

"I—Don't make assumptions," Arashi said, focusing on pouring water into a glass.

"It's not an assumption. I know you're angry," Sorata said, taking a glass for himself and filling it with juice. "You're glaring, and you're not looking at me, and you tried to escape into the kitchen."

"Not about that!" Arashi snapped. "Why do you always have to make things worse?"

"It's not on purpose." Sorata looked at her thoughtfully. "Why are you so upset? Usually it takes a lot more than this to get you so angry with me." Arashi bit her tongue to keep from replying directly to that—that he would know what made her angry and do it anyway was—even for him! "Is it because of the list I made?"

"Don't be an idiot. I don't care about your fantasies," Arashi snapped.

"I know." It was said so calmly, so matter-of-fact, that Arashi was startled out of her glaring at the sink. She looked at him to find him not looking at her, but down at his glass of juice. He saw her looking out of the corner of his eye and grinned at her. "Believe it or not, I don't seriously try to get you angry at me. Making you hate me isn't much fun."

Arashi drank her water to avoid immediately replying. "If that's the case, then you shouldn't provoke it." Even though he was acting apologetic, he hadn't actually apologized.

"But I _do_ like seeing Neechan react. Seeing you do something besides stand off by yourself." Sorata considered his words, and seemed to find them too serious. He grinned over at her. "Wouldn't it be fun if we could find something _else_ to do besides you getting angry at me?" There was a decisively suggestive bend to his tone, and Arashi—who had been calming down—felt her face grow hot again. With anger, with anger—of course.

"I'm _not_ having any children with you," Arashi snapped, unable to think of any other retort. To late did she realize that she was the one insinuating that time—that 'something fun' and 'having children' could be considered related.

For once in his life, Sorata either didn't pick up on the hint or ignored it. "As long as you don't with anyone else, either," he said cheerfully. "In the meanwhile, do you like '_mi_' names or '_ko_' names better?"

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End file.
